Author's Note

Originally I intended this to be a one shot, but I found that a story is evolving from it. It may be just a short one, but it's a story anyway. Hope you all enjoy. Thanks for reading! I'm excited to read the reviews.

M-

Chapter 1: Bathroom Behavior

It had been raining that night and everything was completely sodden. The rain had soaked through every last stitch of clothing they had on their backs. Dirty, cold, and wet; Abby trudged up the steel steps leading to the entrance to the Honeycomb hideout with King moving sluggishly in tow. Tonight had been a particularly nasty fight with a group of 15 or so vampires and the duo were no worse for the wear. Each of them sported scratches and bruises laden across their bodies but luckily it was them who came out victorious. King had blown away an impressive nine of the fanged leeches and Abby picked up the spare by spearing six. It was Hell. Between the two of them, they had taken out a small coven of vampires; A night in which they should celebrate, had they not been so haggard. Somehow Abby thought that even with the massive amounts of soreness, King would still find the strength to have a celebratory beer. She cracked her arm and tried to massage the oncoming ache away as she limped up the pathway. Her feet felt like lead weights.

"God!"

She heard a low grunt of agreement coming from behind her. Apparently King shared her pain tonight. His voice had gotten a lot raspier since the beginning of the night.

"Amen…"

He was holding the tactical bag making him walk at an angle. Abby noticed that he was favoring his left ankle, which probably meant that he had sprained it at some point during the night. She made a note to check it out for him later. Her hand slipped under the strap of the bag as she took it from him and slung it over her shoulder. Grabbing his hand, she inadvertently supported some of his weight and he gave her a brief acknowledgment of appreciation with his tired eyes. Abby saw that there wasn't anyone on the lookout. Usually that was inhabited by Zoë, but lately she had been spending a lot of time near her mother's old computer station. It had been six months since the massacre and the fall of Drake. Each of them grieved differently day to day, except for Zoë. Part of her was still trying to comprehend the loss. Considering the time, she should be in bed, but she was developing a nighttime habit just like the rest of the Nightstalkers. Caulder had to be somewhere near; she heard bagpipe music filling the air. He must be feeling frisky, if that is such a word one could use when describing Caulder. Dash would be a little less easy to locate. Knowing him, he's somewhere in the city trying to stakeout for their next location. Abby wiped her cheek, felt how sticky she was and groaned.

"All I want to do tonight is get in the shower and scrape my skin clean. I feel so disgusting."

For the most part, her cohort had been relatively quiet as they approached the compound. However, he did let out a dissatisfied groan at hearing his coworker's choice in music for the night. A subject, in which, Abby believed King had no room to talk. Not that he would have said anything anyway. He was simply too tired to speak. But, true to his spirit, King tried to keep everything jovial even given the state of things by retorting to Abby's statement of personal hygiene with his own little joke.

"That's because you have crabs..."

Abby whipped around and screwed up her face in disgust and amusement.

"Hey!"

She socked him playfully, albeit hard, on the shoulder. He winced as dull pain reverberated through his body but he grabbed his arm chuckling despite it. Abby gave him a humorous, pointed glance.

"If by chance I had crabs, and I don't...it's only because you gave them to me."

A faux expression of shock registered of his face as he tried to act appalled.

"Oh how dare you! I'm not dirty."

She tried not to laugh as she looked at him condescendingly. While it was a fact that the two of them had never done anything sexually with each other, King still liked to crack jokes about it because he had a sick enjoyment with teasing Abby about being a prude. And, compared to him, she was. But then again, who wasn't a prude when being compared to King? To her, he was a 'one man homage' to the entire porn industry.

"I guess that's why your beard itches right?"

That easily shut him up as they enter the main hub of the station. Abby felt a sly grin sneak up on her face as he fake look of shock turned into a real one. Usually King was the one who had the witty comebacks, but not tonight. He had walked right into that one. Abby decided to let him sulk on that for a while and immediately headed to the shower only to hear King calling up the stairs after her.

"I swear I'm clean!"

After about 45 minutes King got curious as if Abby was going to leave him any hot water.

So he decided that he'd go up there and see what was taking her so long. He walked up the stairs and knocked on the bathroom door where he thought Abby was taking a shower but all he heard was the sound of the water running out of the faucet. On the inside, Abby knew it was King just by the heavy placed knocking on the door.

"You can come in."

He was surprised to hear that response to say the least. He decided that talking to her through the door may be better.

"I just wanted to know how long you were going to be so I can brush my teeth. That's all I really want to do. That Goddamn atomized garlic shit got in my mouth tonight and now I can't get rid of the fucking taste."

He listened to the splashing of water and figured that Abby must've have decided to take a bath instead.

"I'm just shaving my legs King, you can come in you know."

He walked in to find her in a wife beater and a pair of underwear. Not naked like he expected and hoped but rather sitting on the toilet seat with her leg propped up on the edge of the tub and one arm dangling over on the inside, under the faucet, rinsing off a razor. She had already showered and there was clean flowery scent surrounding her King cocked his head to the side and looked on with genuine interest.

"Is this what girls do?"

Abby shrugged nonchalantly gliding the razor up her leg once more.

"I don't know if it's what girls do, but it's what I do."

Still confused, he ran a hand through his hair and unzipped his shaving kit to remove his toothbrush and toothpaste.

"I thought you guys took care of that and other places in the shower."

Abby checked a cut that was still producing a fair amount of blood and decided to shave around it. King noticed her demeanor. It suggested that she did that often while shaving.

"Well, most of the time, we do. But tonight I don't have to worry about those other places. They're already taken care of."

"Really Whistler that was too much information for me..."

She made a goofy face at him. King just smiled and leaned against the bathroom sink.

"Hey, you started it Poindexter. Besides I thought that you of all people would be familiar with what women do in the shower since you're the self professed Ladies Man."

He hadn't realized until now how long and delicate his partner's legs were under the lighting in the bathroom, even with the scratches. They were strong too, but he knew that already. Before, he had viewed them as weapons of mass destruction up until this very pleasing point. But, he decided it would be best not to focus on such things while he, himself, was in just his pajama pants; sans boxers. It had the potential of leading up to a very embarrassing situation for him if he let his imagination wonder off and get the best of him. With that, he reverted his attention to concentrating on the original task that was the reason he came in here in the first place. He brushed his teeth while Abby shaved her legs and made small talk with him. This experience was new to King, and to be honest, he was slightly uncomfortable. But on the contrary, Abby, seemed to be used to doing this. She did most of the talking since his mouth was full of toothpaste foam. She took this opportunity to say whatever she felt because he wouldn't be able to talk back.

"How's the ankle?"

King shrugged and tested his weight lightly. He groaned a bit and lifted up the leg of his khakis to find his ankle was swollen and bruised near his instep. Nonetheless he opened his mouth showing me a massive amount of foam. Apparently a mouthful of toothpaste wasn't going to stop him from talking.

"It's twisted. That's for sure, but I think I'll live."

Abby could smell the peppermint from her spot by the tub. She laughed to herself at how childish he looked while brushing his teeth and gargling.

"If it hasn't killed you sense of humor, I'm certain you'll live."

He smiled, causing the residue to seep out of the corners of his mouth. Abby laughed and made a disgusted face.

"No, you're right. I've still got that."

She looked at herself for a moment. A blow in the shin earlier was presently settling into a nice blue welt. With that in mind, she absently eyed him up and down, searching for possible stray injuries

"Any other mal infirmities I should know about? Besides the obvious bruised ankle and swollen ego…any internal bleeding?"

King shook his head no. His muscles were burning, but that was par for the course. Not to mention the havoc his mind was reeling on him.

"Many things are internal. Bleeding, not being one of them."

"Good to know…"

Abby went about her business, shaving the opposite leg while king rinse his mouth with Scope and wet his face.

"By the way, if you really want to get clean I suggest you follow my example and take a shower because you stink. Oh yeah… and I left my Summer's Eve in there for you."

He turned to give her a vulgar look and then came in eye contact with the very product of their discussion.

"Oh come on now Abby! That was just gross!"

Abby snickered in amusement. Grabbing a washcloth, she wet it and rinsed off the shaving cream from her legs. She ruffled his hair and kissed the top of King's forehead. Before she slipped out of the bathroom, Abby rolled up her wet washcloth and snapped it, popping King loudly on his ass.

"Oww!...Goddamnit woman, that hurt!"

He listened to her laugh herself silly down the hall and couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle too. She for one definitely got a thrill out of a good fight. This made him happy, knowing that Abby would be in a lighthearted mood for the evening now that the fatigue had somewhat lifted. King had decided that after trimming the stray hairs from his beard he would take her advice and shower…sans Summer's Eve.